The High Line

Completed last year in New York, New York, the High Line turns trash to treasure.  It is built atop a 1.45-mile-long abandoned elevated railway that spans twenty-two city blocks between and through buildings along the west side of Manhattan.  It's a result of the collaboration of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, James Corner Field Operations, and Piet Oudolf.

To re-fit the industrial conveyance into a post-industrial instrument of leisure, the strategy used was agri-tecture - part agriculture, part architecture.  The biodiversity that grew unhindered after it fell into ruin is translated into discrete units of paving and planting which are assembled into a variety of gradients from 100% paving to 100% soft, richly vegetated biotopes.  In fact, the paving includes open joints to encourage emergent growth through sidewalk cracks, and it has tapered ends that slowly split into greenery, creating a textured, pathless landscape.